Whirlpool ED5KVEXVB 25.3 Cu. Ft. Side-by-Side Refrigerator Review

Introduction

Front

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The {{product.name}} is a side-by-side refrigerator with a textured, glossy black finish. Its left side has a through-the-door water and ice dispenser.

Fingerprints really won't show on this black matte surface. Unlike most stainless steel surfaces, you won't have to constantly wipe away unsightly smudges.

At the top of the refrigerator section you'll find a couple of knobs that control the temperatures of the fridge and freezer. There's also an LED indicator to help remind you when it's time to change your water filter.

The {{product.name}}'s handle is a curved, plastic affair with ridges on its underside. This grip is useful if you need a regulation fridge handle to practice competitive door opening, but is otherwise just a minor aesthetic flair.

The handle itself is a bit flexible, and seems to slot into these plastic holders. It seems sturdy.

The water and ice dispenser has two different levers to activate ice and water. The levers are curved and straight, and require a decent amount of force to push back. You shouldn't have any issues with glasses, but plastic cups will bow.

The dispenser's control panel features six buttons where three toggles would do.

This is a shot of the underside of the dispenser. The light is a bit yellowish, which might stand out if your kitchen is equipped with daylight bulbs.

Interior

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Like most side-by-side refrigerators, the left side is a freezer and the right side is a refrigerator.

In the left half you'll find three shelves, two of which can be repositioned without a hassle. The shelves are mainly glass with a plastic bezel, and slot into grooves along the refrigerator's wall.

The right half has three drawers and two moveable shelves in the main space. The two drawers have good capacity and slide in and roll out without sticking.

The top of the refrigerator's door has a fairly sizable butter drawer. This is perfect for people who like to keep a dozen sticks of butter in one convenient location. Below the butter drawer you'll find slots for the door's four shelves. You can swap three of them around, but the bottom one

The bottom of the fridge has three more drawers you can shift around as needed. They're all a decent size and wide enough to hold a gallon jug of milk.

There's a small shelf above the ice maker that will let you stash a few bags of frozen peas. Just be aware that there's a bit of a gap towards the back: if you aren't careful, your frozen goods will plummet into the churning maw of the ice maker.

The first half of the freezer section proper has a few wire shelves that can be rearranged.

The bottom of the freezer is a plastic drawer. Sometimes the drawer doesn't slide 100% smoothly, but it isn't jerky enough to prove a chronic annoyance.

There are two shelves on the freezer door, just above the ice chute, but we're tempted to just call it one and a half. The second drawer is so narrow that the most you could fit in there is a bag of frozen peas.

The bottom of the freezer door has three shelves that can't be moved.

The ice maker is located at the top of the freezer, behind a thin door. You can store some stuff on top of it, but for the most part it's just a space sink. The ice maker dispenses through a hold in the door.

Back

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The back of the fridge features a water hookup and not much else.

Sides

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There aren't any interesting features on the side of the {{product.name}}.

Running Cost

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We found that the {{product.name}} would use about 63.35 KW/h of electricity, which means that it would cost $53.48 a year. That's a pretty average score for refrigerators of this size and type.

Power Use Per Cu Ft

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It we look at the amount of electricity used by this refrigerator per cubic foot, we find that the {{product.name}} does pretty well: the ratio is 0.08, which is slightly better than average, giving this refrigerator a higher score.

Fridge Temperature

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A refrigerator has to chill your food, then keep it at a constant temperature to preserve it as long as possible. If the temperature of the food varies, the food may spoil quicker. We found that this Whirlpool had good performance in this test, maintaining a very constant temperature over the several days of our test.

The graph above shows a sample of 12 hours of data from our tests (the full test runs over several days), and show how the refrigerator temperature remains mostly in the yellow zone, which is the Goldilocks zone for a fridge: not too hot, not too cold, but just right. It did have occasional temperature rises, though, which could eventually cause food to spoil.

Freezer Temperature

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The freezer was also mostly consistent in temperature, which helps to stop food from getting freezer burned. Again, there were some occasional sudden rises in temperature, but only very occasionally.

Vegetable Drawer

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Your vegetables like to hide in cool, dark places where they won't get too dried out. That's why refrigerators have dedicated vegetable and fruit drawers, which we test using a fake vegetable (made from floral foam soaked in water). We put this into the vegetable drawer and check the weight over several days to determine how much water is lost to evaporation. We found that the this Whirlpool had slightly disappointing results here: our test vegetable lost just over a quarter of a gram of water per hour, which means that it dried our somewhat quicker than we like to see. So, don't expect your fruits and vegetables to stay moist and tasty in this refrigerator for more than a couple of days.

Power Loss

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If the power at your home gets cut off, your food in the freezer is at risk. So, we test how long food will last in a refrigerator will last by allowing a block of fake food with a temperature sensor to freeze, then cutting off the power and seeing how quickly this block defrosts. For this Whirlpool, we found that this block was no longer frozen after 32 hours and 54 minutes. That is an acceptable time, but if you live in an area with frequent power cuts, you may want to spend more on a fridge with better insulation.

Freezing Performance

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Fast freezing makes food last longer, so it is good to see that our fake food froze quickly in this refrigerator: it was frozen solid in 1 hour and 18 minutes. For this test, we placed the fake food in the compartment above the ice maker that is especially designed for this purpose, as it is right next to the cold air outlet.

Usable Space

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Manufacturers are typically pretty lax with their volume measurements. They include every available inch of the interior, even if it's not directly over a shelf, assume shelves and lights are removed, etc. For our test, we only count the space that you can actually store objects, like on top of shelves or in drawers.

The {{product.name}}'s refrigerator section can hold a good amount of product on its wiry shelves, but it's not anything spectacular. The shelves can technically hold an above average load, but chances are you won't be able to use most of that space. Since the shelves aren't very customizable, trying to accommodate an extra inch or two of headspace will result in a lot of empty air.

The door on the fridge can hold an average load. The shelves are wide enough to hold two gallon jugs of milk side by side with some breathing room left over.

The freezer has a lot less storage space than the refrigerator, because the ice maker and its chute take up a lot of real estate. The main area of the freezer suffers from the same problem as the fridge: there's so few places to slot your shelves.

Again, the ice maker and its chute come at a price: storage space. One shelf above the ice chute is very, very small and the three below it are awkwardly low to the ground and can't be moved.

Below are the manufacturers own figures for capacity, and our own measurements for usable capacity. The manufacturers figures do not take account of the shelves, drawers and other removable features, but our measurements do account for the space these take up.

Ease of Access

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We didn't run into many usability issues with the {{product.name}}. The shelves are all easy to extract and reposition. The one gripe we had was with the ice maker: if something goes wrong and you need to manually fix it, the main mechanism is at a bit of an awkward angle.

Controls

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At the top of the refrigerator section you'll find a couple of knobs that control the temperatures of the fridge and freezer. There's also an LED indicator to help remind you when it's time to change your water filter.

The {{product.name}} keeps its controls inside the fridge, above the refrigerator portion. There's a knob for the refrigerator, a knob for the freezer, and a timer for the water filter.

Water Dispenser

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The water dispenser is located on the fridge's left door, next to the ice maker.

Ice Maker

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The ice maker is located at the top of the freezer, behind a thin door. You can store some stuff on top of it, but for the most part it's just a space sink. The ice maker dispenses through a hold in the door.

Cleaning

Noise

Other Features

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Conclusion

Energy Efficiency

We had no complaints with the {{product.brand.name}}'s energy efficiency. It's about the same cost to run it as other refrigerators in its class.

Performance

The {{product.brand.name}}'s performance wasn't perfect, but it was still functional. You won't have to worry about your food spoiling overnight, but you'll also run into issues like freezer burn more often than with a higher-end model.

Storage Space

The {{product.brand.name}} has an average amount of storage space, and should be fine for the average consumer. If you have a full family, however, you'll probably want a bigger fridge.

Usability

The {{product.brand.name}} doesn't have any frills, but it also doesn't have any hurdles to a good, usable experience.